1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a wiring member and an electric connection box which uses a wiring member manufactured by this method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electric connection box, an electric wire is wired, one at a time, on a wiring plate, which is formed of an electrically insulating synthetic resin and has a plurality of projections between which an electric wire is laid out, and is cut and those works are repeated to form a wiring member having a circuit of a desired pattern. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. Hei 8-79943 discloses a wiring method for a wiring member assembly, which places a wiring member, acquired in the above-described manner, on a wiring board having a bus bar, and pressing the electric wire in slots of pressure-contacting terminals provided on the bus bar by a pressing jig, thereby forming an internal circuit of an electric connection box.
The wiring member assembly disclosed in the publication is acquired by repeating the works of wiring an electric wire on a wiring member one at a time and cutting the electric wire as in the above-described wiring member acquisition. The wiring work for a wiring member assembly takes time and thus manufacturing the wiring member assembly also takes time. Accordingly, the manufacture of an electric connection box takes time, disadvantageously.
As an electric wire is wired one at a time to form a circuit of a desired pattern, the wiring head of a wiring machine which holds the electric wire should be designed to be movable three-dimensionally in order to cope with complicated circuit patterns. The wiring machine inevitably has a complex structure and becomes expensive, which makes a wiring member assembly and thus an electric connection box expensive.
Further, as the structure of the wiring member becomes complex, a wiring program for wiring electric wires becomes more elaborate. What is more, a wiring plate is a special component whose outer shape matches with each type of electric connection box. Those factors make it difficult to cope with a change in the design of a circuit in an electric circuit box.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a wiring member and an electric connection box, which allow a wiring member to be manufactured in a short period of time using a wiring machine with a simple structure without using a special wiring plate and which can easily cope with a change in circuit design.
To achieve the above object, a method of manufacturing a wiring member according to this invention comprises the steps of winding an electric wire around a wire winding body having a plurality of wire holding members arranged thereon, and wiring the electric wire into a desired pattern using a plurality of retaining sections formed on each of the wire holding members; cutting the electric wire at a desired position; and removing the electric wire at least from the wire winding body.
It is preferable that a rotary shaft and a plurality of inserting sections where the wire holding members are inserted should be formed on the wire winding body.
It is preferable that the retaining sections be retaining grooves.
It is further preferable that each of the wire holding member should have a terminal groove formed in a direction perpendicular to a layout direction of the plurality of retaining grooves.
To achieve the object of this invention, an electric connection box according to this invention is manufactured by retaining a wiring member manufactured by the above-described method recited in a case.
It is preferable that the case should have an upper case and a lower case.
According to the present invention, there are provided a method of manufacturing a wiring member and an electric connection box, which allow a wiring member to be manufactured in a short period of time using a wiring machine with a simple structure without using a special wiring plate and which can easily cope with a change in circuit design.